10 years in the business and never seen this hack job

[JWadelHVAC]

Went to a new customers house today. They moved into the house a week ago. Called about the EAC making a zapping noise and fan not cycling off. EAC very dirty of course. That was the least of their problems. Went out side to check the heat pump. This is what I found. Reversing valve completely removed along with the accumulator. Compressor windings shorted and 10psi on the gauges. Did a leak check. Evap coil leaking and the TXV sensing bulb just dangling there. This is a 02 Carrier Puron system.
Have any of you techs come across this mess before. I have no clue why someone would do this.

[gravity]

was the serial number scratched off? i went to a brand new job that had carrier r-410a infinity a/c units. all of the controls were ripped out, LPS and HPS bypasses, some compressors replaced, and r-22 txvs.

the a/c company was long gone

[JWadelHVAC]

Model and serial numbers still readable.

[hvacmike85]

that was a nice system what an idiot,, RRRRRUUUUUNNNNNN like hell

[XcelTech]

We won the contract on a government job almost two years ago. The building is 6 years old now and the first contractor just about destroyed it. The building uses ClimateMaster heat pumps with water cooled condenser coils. Full contract job so any repairs are on the HVAC companies bill.

Found 63 out of 155 units inop.

Still adding up how many but currently I have found 89 safety devices removed.
Found the biggest unit had the reversing valves removed, the circuit boards rewired. 3 relays added. They burnt up the wall sensor, the circuit board, and the controller board, removed ALL of the safety devices 2 HP 2 LP 4 freeze protection, and a condensate drain float.

Found 12 replaced BACnet ALC controllers replaced with either just a Thermostat or a Distech LON controller. Of course none worked with the front end.

Found a condenser water pump and boiler control system half replaced with 2 VFD's attached to a Distech controller while the other half being the water tower controls, water sensors, and ambient temp. sensors that the Allerton system needed, removed from the Allerton controller even though the controller was still in place and operable.

13 busted Spoorlan power head TXV's

Found 8 compressor burn outs and 2 units with a factor charge of 3lbs of R-22 charged with 22lbs of r-22. Guess what condition the compressors where in.

4 freshair dehumidifier coils busted due to freeze.

Finally, the HVAC company told the customer(A Veterans Home) that Climate Master was out of business so any repairs had to be done against OEM spec.

All because the installation company forgot to flip one switch(one each unit) to delay the compressor startup 1 minute because the water actuator had a 45 sec delay on open which caused the condensing coil to freeze up when the system was in heat mode. And because they had no idea how to program the ALC controllers provided by Climate Master.

It took them 5 years to destroy it and it has taken me 1 1/2 years to get 94%ish of it working again.

Still gotta replace the safety devices dehumidifier coils, and redo all the pump and water tower controls.

But the customer is extremely happy with us

[BoatMechanicMatt]

Xcel I guess it is nice the previous company set the bar so low, so now all you have to do is.....your job and you are a hero

[keeplearnin]

awesome stuff. Why in the world would somebody remove a reversing vlv?

[hvacmike85]

We won the contract on a government job almost two years ago. The building is 6 years old now and the first contractor just about destroyed it. The building uses ClimateMaster heat pumps with water cooled condenser coils. Full contract job so any repairs are on the HVAC companies bill.

Found 63 out of 155 units inop.

Still adding up how many but currently I have found 89 safety devices removed.
Found the biggest unit had the reversing valves removed, the circuit boards rewired. 3 relays added. They burnt up the wall sensor, the circuit board, and the controller board, removed ALL of the safety devices 2 HP 2 LP 4 freeze protection, and a condensate drain float.

Found 12 replaced BACnet ALC controllers replaced with either just a Thermostat or a Distech LON controller. Of course none worked with the front end.

Found a condenser water pump and boiler control system half replaced with 2 VFD's attached to a Distech controller while the other half being the water tower controls, water sensors, and ambient temp. sensors that the Allerton system needed, removed from the Allerton controller even though the controller was still in place and operable.

13 busted Spoorlan power head TXV's

Found 8 compressor burn outs and 2 units with a factor charge of 3lbs of R-22 charged with 22lbs of r-22. Guess what condition the compressors where in.

4 freshair dehumidifier coils busted due to freeze.

Finally, the HVAC company told the customer(A Veterans Home) that Climate Master was out of business so any repairs had to be done against OEM spec.

All because the installation company forgot to flip one switch(one each unit) to delay the compressor startup 1 minute because the water actuator had a 45 sec delay on open which caused the condensing coil to freeze up when the system was in heat mode. And because they had no idea how to program the ALC controllers provided by Climate Master.

It took them 5 years to destroy it and it has taken me 1 1/2 years to get 94%ish of it working again.

Still gotta replace the safety devices dehumidifier coils, and redo all the pump and water tower controls.

But the customer is extremely happy with us

Hats off to you, sounds like you got a mess, you will not only be a better tech but richer from it. We have done jobs to where we fix so many things wrong the last co. did we made more than we would if we did the job to begin with..lol How they get away with it puzzles me

[trouble time]

Good luck with it......lol

[71CHOPS]

i would definately worry about the origin of that one jwadel......looks like it could be a conglomeration of parts that didn't originally live together.

[allan38]

Went to a new customers house today. They moved into the house a week ago. Called about the EAC making a zapping noise and fan not cycling off. EAC very dirty of course. That was the least of their problems. Went out side to check the heat pump. This is what I found. Reversing valve completely removed along with the accumulator. Compressor windings shorted and 10psi on the gauges. Did a leak check. Evap coil leaking and the TXV sensing bulb just dangling there. This is a 02 Carrier Puron system.

Have any of you techs come across this mess before. I have no clue why someone would do this.

I've seen similar garbage but not all at once. I've also seen it as a temporary measure to get cooling until parts arrived.. Someone may have dropped the ball or didn't care. I've heard the phrase "It looks good from my house".

1. They changed the system from Heat pump to AC only. I've seen a company do that until the reversing valve came in. (the tech originally burned up the replacement and had to backorder another) The customer expects you to get him cooling when they call you in 100 degree weather.


2. I've seen them sticking out into the attic air, apparently since the original install many many years ago. A senior tech once explained to me "When the pressure bulb on the TXV has a partial charge, moving it into the airstream or attic may cause it to partially open and then you charge it like a fixed orifice. Just as a temporary fix until you can get the back ordered txv installed."

Leaving a system like this as a final repair is inexcusable.

[tunnel_rat]

awesome stuff. Why in the world would somebody remove a reversing vlv?

Sounds like someone tried to make an A/C out of it....

[cdac]

I'd say this probably began with a realtor..
What we find is that a realtor believes their job is to get everything for as close to free as possible in order to make the deal and get the commission. This results in them finding the cheapest contractor they can that will get them "past the inspection" which we all know is goofball running around taking temp splits and calling it and hvac assessment as part of the home inspection. (He also verifies hot on left cold on right @ each lav.... valuable stuff..) This one "could" have produced good splits if it was set up as a conventional a/c w/ electric heat & timed just right before the charge was gone. The contractor that will do this is he guy Chris Hansen warns our customers about and makes all of us look bad. Realtors will continue to search for a contractor til they get the answer - price - they are looking for. They look at our business as a comodity and fail to realize that cheap does not equal good. The rest of us get the pleasure of delivering the bad news, the home buyer gets and the industry image takes another hit. I'm sure you already did this but I can't stress it enough -document, document, document. Don't leave anything out of your repair estimate. This buyer, IMHO, was defrauded and your estimate is likely to end up as plaintiff's exhibit__ and it will need to help justify the reasons the seller/realtor/previous contractor should be held responsible for the system replacement cost. Good Luck.